Birthday Cruise - Day 4

The Bridge 8 moorings are very nice.  There's the hum of the M54 in the background, but not enough to notice.

We woke to a much sunnier day than we'd been expecting, and set off at 8.30.  This is a stretch of the Shroppie we've done many times, but it was looking beautiful in the sunshine, with signs of spring everywhere.  Buds on many of the bushes look fit to burst open, and many of the trees have bright new leaves.

We had to turn Wheaton Aston lock (our only lock of the day).  Once down, we stopped at the water point and filled the tank.

Setting off again, we passed a man washing his boat on the Wheaton Aston visitor moorings.  He said he was probably going to make it rain.  About two minutes later, the rain started.  It lasted only about ten minutes or so, but included several torrential downpours, and by the time it stopped I was pretty wet.  Then the sun came out again, and within half an hour or so everything was dry.

As we went along, we cleaned the inside of the boat.  Adrian did the kitchen, I did the bathroom, and Adrian vacuumed.  We had a quick lunch on the move before arriving back at Norbury Wharf.  Just as we approached, there was another shower.  We tied up in the rain, but it had pretty much stopped by the time we needed to load the car.  We were on the road by 2pm, and had a pretty good journey.  The worst hold up was two miles from home, where there'd been an accident on the opposite carriagway of the A27.

12 miles, 1 lock.  (40, 12)